New Orleans Pelicans Beat the New York Knicks to Tip Off Summer League

The New Orleans Pelicans beat the New York Knicks 77-72 in the first game of Summer League behind a strong performance by Austin Rivers. Plus, Eric Snow may be joining the team as an assistant coach.

Austin Rivers

In his first competitive game back since breaking his hand at the tail end of last season, Rivers put up 24 points on 15 shots while adding seven boards and six assists. He was able to get where he pleased against Tim Hardaway jr. and Iman Shumpert (who struggled all game), and played fine on the defensive end.

It might just be Summer League, so we won’t read that much into this performance, but if you recall Austin was awful last year during this same event. The fact that he performed so much better this year is a definitely a good sign that he’s taking steps forward in his development.

However, the left hand that he’s been focusing on improving looked less than stellar. It’s clear he has a lot more work to do before he’ll be able to rely on it consistently.

Darius Miller

For whatever reason, the bench was cheering Darius Miller more than anyone else, encouraging him to let it fly just about every time he got his hands on the ball. He hit a couple bit threes late in the game to salvage an otherwise unimpressive performance.

Brian Roberts

Roberts didn’t quite get his jumper going, and wasn’t really getting balls to fall around the rim either. It was a less than stellar game for the Summer League vet, but after outperforming expectations last year in the NBA, he’s probably not sweating it too much. He finished with 10 points on 13 shots to go with two assists and five boards. The four turnovers weren’t ideal, but he had the ball in his hands for a ton of the game, and turnovers are to be expected when you’re unfamiliar with most of the other guys on floor.

John Brockman

My first impression of Brockman is that he’s strong. Really strong. I’d be willing to bet that he can bench Austin Rivers and Brian Roberts if you put them on each side of a bar. He uses his strength well, and as a result he’s a damn fine rebounder. He pulled 10 of them in 30 minutes, adding 9 points on 7 shots.

Lance Thomas

Even though Lance was waived, he on the bench wearing a Pelicans shirt. We’re told that if/when he clears waivers he will be resigned. Good. I like Lance, coaches like Lance, and Lance likes New Orleans. Plus he’s friends with Anthony Davis, which can’t hurt his chances of sticking around.

Eric Snow

We are told that Eric Snow will likely be joining the staff as an assistant coach. Snow is a former player who has experience in the broadcast booth and on the bench as an assistant for SMU under his former coach, Larry Brown.

Pierre Jackson and Jeff Withey

Jackson and Withey were both in the stands watching anxiously. Both are expected to play on Sunday, 7:30 p.m. CT (UTC -5) against the Bucks.

For the rest of this thread, it's either Summer League talk or responding to this comment saying some good stuff about the writers or saying what you'd like to see more of / better of with the site in general.

I'll start.

Setting aside specific expressions thereof, the passion of our readers and Pelicans fans is something special, and I think I type for us all, including the thousands of non-commenting readers, when I say that is where is all starts. With this kind of passion, we will succeed as fan base . . . supporting the team, leaving visiting fans either envious of us or with the Pelicans as their second favorite team, representing the city the way it deserves.

For what it's worth, I appreciate ANY amount of coverage provided, be it good, bad, or ugly, and since I am the one coming to THEIR site, I have the right to LEAVE if I'm not satisfied. Let us not digress into the bowels of content and grammar issues unless we are unsatisfied with the amount we are PAYING (!) as appreciative recipients of the efforts and information contained herein.

Based on the below conversation, I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank Michael, Jason, Joe, and everyone else who has been putting in work on the site. Jason is right when he says Bourbon Street Shots is doing coverage of the Pelicans that no other website is doing. You guys killed it during free agency with the player profiles and cap room updates. You out-shined other news organizations like the Picayune, and you are continuing to give me everything I could possibly want to read as a Pelicans fan. As a fellow journalist and writer I can appreciate how difficult it is to keep things fresh and top-notch. You guys are doing it. Keep up the good work on the podcasts, the offseason coverage, and everything you guys do. Thanks.

Based on tweets, I am glad Joe wrote this not Michael. I too hope Lance rejoins the Pelicans. Knowing Withey and Jackson are will play Sunday is the best new of all to me. Looking forward to Sunday's game, hopefully with Lance playing, too.

It was nice to see improvement from Austin. He went left a few times, although he still seems tentative to do so. If my memory is correct, he never finished with his left hand. Still, it's nice to see his progress in this area. His shot looked better, he was decent from the line and he finished at the rim. The $15 fee to watch the summer league games and get a sneak preview at Rivers' upcoming season is well worth it. I'm ready to get a look at our rooks Sunday.

I was really impressed with Austin Rivers all around game he did a good job shooting, attacking, passing, and defending. I wasn't that surprised due to that I was expecting him to show out in the summer league.

Another guy was Darius Miller he still seemed unsure of what he wants to do but he did his job which is knock down the corner three and defend plus he had a monster block.

The last guy who caught my eye was Cameron Moore he probably won't make the team but I loved what I saw he could shoot and finish when fouled he is like a stretch 4.

@504ever Really? I'm appreciative for Joe for everything he does for the site, but he isn't half the writer or basketball analyst that Michael is. This article was very fundamental. There were barely any examples, and this sort of analysis could have been done by my mother - no offense Joe.

Broke the news that Eric Snow and Lance Thomas would be here next year, tweeted about Cameron Moore- who I told everyone to watch out for in my preview piece, how teammates were begging Miller to shoot more, how Brockman is an NBA player, how Roberts was looking for his own as usual, that Pierre was super anxious, Withey was incredibly skinny, and much more.

@Eric Forman I think that's a bit unfair to Joe, He has written some pretty dam good articles over the years with advanced analytics and all. Before the podcasts came along, his pieces were the highlight of the site for me and the reason why I followed this site daily. Jason makes the point that this is only summer league and at this stage you shouldn't expect much else in a recap. Michael or any of the other writers would have pretty much written the same thing.

To say that you mean no offense by a couple of the lines you used in your comment is quite frankly... 'offensive'

@Eric Forman@504ever To be perfectly fair here, all reader biases aside, I asked if someone was going to write an article, and Joe said it would be a glorified box score read. It is so for very good reasons: they are doing some work that is not being duplicated elsewhere. I asked Joe to jot one down, and he did a good job within those constraints.

The work these two are doing it top shelf, just like Joe and Andrew did last year.

It's just a choice.

Rip him (or anyone) if they phone one in in the best of circumstances, but in this case, it's on me if anyone, regardless of what it says in the author box.

Michael, Relax! I love the stuff you do and often say so, and/or offer additional or different thoughts. But read my post above. I was careful to say "during game comments on twitter". I love the information above, but much of it was stated before or after the game.

And you are entitled to be excited about Rivers. I am too, based on what I could read online leading up to and about this summer league game. Let's hope Rivers becomes part of our young core of guys averaging well into double digit minutes per game in the regular season. That would be great!

Looking forward to the next Bourbon Streets Shots piece. It's time to move on.

@PelicanDownUnder@Eric Forman McNamara's twitter line had more insight than this, if we're going down that route. Still, it wasn't intended as a light to Joe. Looking back, I certainly could have worded it better. When I said MM was twice the writer that Joe is, it was hyperbole. I guess that didn't translate well. Either way, as of recent, Joe hasn't been writing much, so I guess MM's articles are fresher in my head than Joe's.

Joe, I really am sorry to offend you. Trust me, it wasn't my intention. Just over exaggeration, and that was an error on my part..

@Eric Forman@Jason Calmes I'll offer up the following: This is about the best analysis of Summer League anyone should get. Something with more words or purported observations is likely completely useless, or worse, misleading. C'mon, it's got next to no relevance in the big picture. No information with predictive power other than, say, Rivers is better than last year, no one is clearly injured, etc.

Some people miss the games, so you get a juiced up box score and news on Eric Snow that isn't reported elsewhere.

@Jason Calmes I didn't mean to rip anyone. I was trying to put it as delicately as possible. I guess I've been spoiled by all the great writing here over the past few months. Y'all have been on top of everything, and this just fell flat for me. I'm used to you guys putting analysis in, providing examples, where as this piece was very general. Not trying to play the blame game. There's stuff that Joe does that I really like, but this one just fell short for me. No biggie. I'm a returning customer!

Did anyone read Michael's and Joe's during game comments on twitter before responding to my post above?

I think you all need to lighten up! I was tweeking Michael for his near continuous love of Rivers. He almost tweeted about no other player the entire game which is fine, but isn't what I want in a post game wrap up.